The day that Phil Gramm became the first to toss his hat
into the ring for the 1996 GOP nomination, February 24, Richard
Berke wrote in The New York Times: "The only time you are assured
flattering news coverage is on the day you announce and on election
night -- assuming you win."

To see if the first part of this adage applied to both
Republicans and Democrats, MediaWatch analysts compared network coverage
of announcements by GOP candidates this year, to the coverage
received by Democrats when they announced in 1991. The study
looked only at evening news announcement and profile stories on
ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN World News, and in 1995, also CNN's
Inside Politics.

There were 29 stories introducing the six major candidates
(Clinton, Kerrey, Harkin, Tsongas, Wilder, and Brown) for the
Democratic nod in 1991, and 40 stories on the eight current GOP
candidates (Gramm, Alexander, Dole, Buchanan, Keyes, Lugar, Specter,
and Dornan). Almost a third of the labels applied to
Republicans were extreme labels such as "far right," while
Democrats were never tagged as extreme; reporters were 20 times
more likely to identify Republicans' position on abortion;
lack of military service was never mentioned in 1991, but seven
1995 stories mentioned Republicans who hadn't served; and
reporters were more than three times as likely to question public
and private conduct of Republican candidates.

Ideological Labels. Of 58 labels found in this year's
Republican coverage, 51 (88 percent) depicted the candidates and the
party as either conservative or in terms even further to the
right. Terms such as "far right" accounted for 18 tags, or
almost a third of all labels.

On February 24, CBS reporter Linda Douglass alleged: "For
years, critics have called Gramm an extremist." On March 30, CBS's
Eric Engberg introduced Sen. Arlen Specter as a "pro-abortion rights
moderate willing to fight what he calls the Republican
ultraconservative fringe." ABC's Jim Wooten claimed Lamar
Alexander has "moved far and fast from the center of his party
to a conservatism that makes him almost indistinguishable from
the others." On April 13, CNN's Gene Randall proclaimed Bob
Dornan came "from political stage far right."

In 1991, 16 of 23 labels (70 percent) characterized the
Democrats or their party as liberal. But eight of the liberal labels
applied to Tom Harkin. CNN's Randall described Sen. Bob Kerrey as
"a populist, liberal enough to challenge Sen. Tom Harkin of
Iowa, Kerrey would also compete with Arkansas Governor Bill
Clinton for his party's moderate center." Clinton drew no
liberal labels: NBC's Lisa Myers characterized Clinton as being
"driven less by ideology than by what works...Name a problem,
Clinton probably has a solution." Wilder was twice called a
"fiscal conservative." No one referred to Harkin or Jerry Brown
as "far left" or even "left."

Abortion. Suggesting a pro-life position hurts the GOP,
reporters this year identified Republicans' position on abortion
more often than the uniformly pro-abortion Democrats in 1991 by a
margin of 20 to 1. CNN's Jeanne Meserve explained the advantage
of a pro-choice position with a CNN poll on Inside Politics
March 30: "The latest CNN/USA Today Gallup Poll should
encourage Specter....better than 6 of 10 said they would
support a candidate who favors current abortion laws."

Military. Mentions of Republicans' military record
outnumbered those of Democrats in 1991 by a margin of 16 to 6. Seven
Republican profiles disclosed a lack of service; no reporters
mentioned that any Democrats lacked military service, including
Clinton's draft avoidance. Five of the six stories in '91
highlighted Kerrey's and Wilder's decorated war records. But
ABC's Jim Wooten proclaimed on February 24: "Gramm has not been
a paragon of consistency...He urged Texans to reject a
Democratic candidate because he hadn't been in the military.
Neither was Gramm."

Temperament. Reporters this year mentioned the temperament
of the candidates more often than they did in 1991 by a margin
of 11 to 3. While NBC's Andrea Mitchell did call Harkin "an angry
man waging a campaign of class warfare," CNN's David French also
touted him as "well known for his rousing stump speech-es."
This year, the networks cast all 11 references to GOP
candidates in a negative light. On the February 23 Inside
Politics, Bruce Morton claimed that Gramm was "too abrasive,
sometimes just plain mean." ABC's Jim Wooten warned on April 10
that Dole will "be closely watched for signs that he is still
quick to bristle." CBS's Douglass said on April 13: "Dornan doesn't
state his opinions, he spews them."

Public or Private Lives. Questions about the public or
private conduct of Republicans surpassed those of Democrats by 7 to 2.
CNN led the way with four references to the past conduct of GOP
candidates, two of them full-length first-day expos‚s.

Brooks Jackson ended a lengthy piece on Gramm's vacation
home and the S&L owner who helped him build it: "Gramm may now
be the first Senator cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee twice on
the same question." He then alleged: "This looks, looks, I
stress looks, worse for Gramm than the original Whitewater
allegations did for the President." Four days later, Jackson
explored how Alexander became a millionaire: "Nothing illegal
here....But the sheer size of his deals makes Hillary Clinton's
commodities profits look like a widows and orphans fund."

Reporters scrutinized Specter for what Eric Engberg alleged
on March 30: "He enraged many women during the Clarence Thomas
confirmation fight by attacking Anita Hill."

In an April 12 profile Gene Randall disclosed that Dornan's
entry "coincides with his 40th wedding anniversary. The irony:
Sallie Dornan filed and then dropped four separate divorce actions
against her husband between 1960 and 1976. She told the Los Angeles
Times she lied about charges of physical abuse and that the
real problem was her own addiction to alcohol and prescription
drugs." The playing field had changed. When Clinton included in
his 1991 announcement speech that his marriage "has not been
perfect or free of difficulties," Randall wondered "Why did
Clinton even say that much?"

NewsBites: Direct Mail Divergence

Since the Oklahoma City bombing, the media have kept close
tabs on the National Rifle Association. Between April 25 and June
1, the evening news shows devoted 30 stories to some aspect of the
NRA, 25 of which mentioned the now-famous fundraising letter
referring to agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and
Firearms as "jackbooted government thugs." Seven stories
covered the group's May convention.

But when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
sent a fundraising letter accusing Newt Gingrich of "promoting
the policies of a terrorist" by favoring Drug Enforcement Agency cuts,
the media yawned. ABC's Peter Jennings gave it a brief mention
May 5, and the same night NBC's Tom Brokaw threw it in at the
end of a story on talk show host G. Gordon Liddy. CNN mentioned
it on the May 5 and 6 Inside Politics. But CBS Evening News
and CNN World News ignored it, as did Time, Newsweek, and U.S.
News & World Report. The DCCC's May 23 fundraising dinner
drew no reporters demanding that donors defend the hateful
remark.

Reporters also ignored the leftist Quixote Center, which
used the autobiography of a convicted cop-killer as a fundraising
tool. Asserting that Mumia Abu-Jamal was "a victim of a racist and
corrupt justice system," they invited donations for a free copy
of his book, Live From Death Row. The only TV coverage came in
an Anthony Mason piece on the May 19 CBS Evening News, which
failed to mention the Quixote letter.

A Divided NRA?

Reporters at the NRA convention often went looking for an
ideological shoot-out. Charles Osgood introduced a May 21 Sunday
Morning cover story: "For the NRA, there seems also to be an enemy
within." Reporter David Culhane claimed: "The gun group is meeting
during a blaze of withering criticism from across the nation
for its inflammatory fundraising rhetoric, attacking federal
agents."

Culhane portrayed a group divided over the leadership's
"uncompromising and fiery language," noting: "Now even some
rank and file NRA members have recoiled in disgust at the extreme
language of the national office." On the May 12 CBS Evening News, Jim
Stewart asked about the NRA 's fundraising appeals and print
ads with menacing federal agents dressed in black: "But when
you use words like that and you print pictures like that,
what's to distinguish you between the militia?" Although
bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh had stopped paying NRA dues
years ago, Stewart concluded: "Since then, in a letter to his
congressman, he railed against gun control and affixed this
sticker to the envelope: I am the NRA."

Washington Post reporter John Mintz painted a different
picture on May 20: "The spirit of the 22,000 members who
gathered here today for the group's annual convention could perhaps best
be described by the hand-scrawled lettering on a sticker on
one member's sports shirt: `NRA...Not Ready to
Apologize`....Judging by the NRA activists interviewed at its
gathering here...the NRA's leadership has read its members
well."

Potter's Precedent.

ABC's Ned Potter worked himself into a lather May 11 over
the environmental laws passed by the new Republican Congress. In a
World News Tonight piece, Potter was aghast at the fact that
lobbyists were helping craft the bill: "It's not just what's
being done, it's how it's being done. Leading Democrats say
they're being cut out of the process while business interests
get to write some of the legislation that directly affects
them. A key case is the Clean Water Act, rewritten by a House
committee. Senior Democrats say behind their backs, Republicans
sat down with lobbyists from oil, chemicals and agriculture to
craft the bill...The new Congress is putting 25 years of
environmental progress at risk."

Potter, upholding his usual commitment to balance, only
cited liberal environmentalists, never interviewing conservative
experts. He could have discovered, as the Competitive Enterprise
Institute's Jonathan Tolman told MediaWatch: "Environmentalists have
been writing legislation for the Democrat-controlled Congress
since 1972 with the first Clean Water Act." Tolman pointed out
that Potter's characterization of the bill was wrong. The
legislation's "biggest loopholes are for municipalities.
Industry spends $20 billion a year to comply with the Clean
Water Act and will still have to pay $20 billion a year after
this is passed....If you look at what the bill really does, big
business doesn't get a whole lot out of the bill."

Lovable Moderates.

When does a liberal Republican become a conservative? When
he's profiled by liberal reporters. In the May 1 issue, U.S. News &
World Report's David Hage and Robert F. Black reflected on
those in control of the Senate's fiscal committees: "Like
Hatfield, Packwood is an Oregon maverick who represents his
party's moderate wing on social issues such as civil rights.
But on fiscal issues, Packwood is a conservative who made the
1994 honor roll of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan group
that advocates a balanced budget." But National Journal gave
Packwood a 54 percent conservative rating on economic issues in
1992, lower than most Republicans.

A Los Angeles Times article five days later explained the
good that moderates do. In a piece titled "Senate GOP Moderates Feel
Pressure From the Right," staff writer Janet Hook asserted that in
the Senate, "The money committees were not run by conservative
zealots but by more moderate, old school Republicans -- Pete
V. Domenici of New Mexico and Oregon Sens. Mark O. Hatfield and
Bob Packwood. Certainly, the liberals thought, those three
would ditch the most extreme conservative measures that
careened through the House." Despite Domenici's record of
supporting tax hikes like the 1990 budget deal, Hook observed:
"The perception of Domenici as a political moderate is a
measure of how far right the GOP has moved."

Flying Past Daschle.

Reporting on congressional hearings into the FAA letting
planes fly with unapproved or counterfeit parts, CBS's Dan
Rather warned May 24 of "possible airline disasters out there just
waiting to happen." He could have started with Senate Minority
Leader Tom Daschle. While each network devoted at least one
story to the hearings, they have yet to cover allegations that
Daschle influenced safety inspectors' treatment of a South
Dakota friend's air carrier company that suffered a fatal
crash. A May 7 New York Times story by Neil A. Lewis contained
the most serious allegations yet, involving Daschle's wife
Linda, second in command at the FAA.

Lewis wrote: "According to department investigators, at
least two senior FAA officials have said Mrs. Daschle broke a promise
to withdraw from cases involving her husband and instead played a
prominent role in quashing a proposed FAA experiment that
would have trained Forest Service flight inspectors in South
Dakota to conduct inspections for the FAA." Mike Wallace's
February 60 Minutes story remains the only TV story on the
scandal.

Vive la France.

In early May, Today went to France where, between accidental
shots of topless women on the beach, anchor Katie Couric
marveled at French food, the beauty of the Mediterranean, and France's
system of socialized day care. A taped segment on May 5 focused
on one French school. Couric observed: "Ninety percent of
France's three to five year olds attend government subsidized
centers like this one." She recited the benefits while assuring
her American audience, "The system works because the French
make it work. Child care is a national priority and is neither
debated nor questioned." Couric then interviewed an American
living in Paris, whose daughter is a pupil in the French day
care system. While conceding there are large classes and that it "costs
taxpayers a lot of money to subsidize these schools," Couric
ended her interview effusively praising the system: "Sounds
like Americans could learn a lot from the way the French do
things in terms of day care."

Abernethy's Buddy System.

Bob Abernethy, the officially retired NBC religion reporter,
has been popping up to give his friends lots of exposure
lately. In April, he did an admiring profile on aging pacifist and
Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy. On May 20, Abernethy
profiled left-wing activist Rev. Jim Wallis, who is on a
cross-country campaign bashing religious conservatives.

Anchor Brian Williams introduced the piece: "The religious
right is continuing a political offensive it started a few
years ago but there is a growing number of religious people who find the
conservative agenda offensive." Abernethy described Wallis'
opposition. "His biggest problem with the Christian Coalition
is its programs towards the poor. Wallis is a founder of
Sojourners Religious Community which believes Christianity
requires ministry to the poor. And when Christians identify
with the rich and powerful?" Wallis replied, "I don't want to
overstate this but I think that's a heresy." Abernethy didn't
label that intolerant.

Abernethy wasn't big on disclosure: he never labeled Wallis a
liberal, nor did he tell viewers that Wallis is editor of the
far-left Sojourners magazine. Wallis was once quoted as saying he hoped
"more Christians will view the world through Marxist eyes." The
NBC reporter also failed to disclose that he endorsed Wallis'
magazine in a direct mail fundraising letter in 1989.
Abernethy, then NBC's Moscow Bureau Chief, wrote: "To find in
one magazine both excellent reporting and commentary, and also a
deep Christian commitment, is inspiring....Sojourners' ability
to serve as a caring observer is a model for all of us."

Simon's Simple Lessons.

CBS News sent Bob Simon back to Vietnam for a series of
reports highlighting the 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and
the end of the war. Simon reported the war as if America was the
invader, and only one side fought. On the April 28 This Morning,
he noted: "There are astonishingly few signs of the American
war in Vietnam today. Everything seems back in place. The
natural order has been reestablished after the convulsion we
wrought." Instead of focusing on the convulsion wrought by the
Vietnamese communists (the mass murder, the concentration
camps), Simon admired the communist dictator. Remarking April
30 on watching the Vietnam War anniversary parade, Simon
observed: "Ho Chi Minh, the man who did not want to be idolized, was not
obeyed by his successors. The kindly old uncle was smiling
over every part of the parade."

On the April 28 Evening News, Simon described the war as a
waste of time, as if communists would have turned to capitalismif
the West hadn't fought communist expansion: "We waged war to save
Saigon from communism. We lost the war but Saigon has been
saved. Just look at this place, that long march down the Ho Chi
Minh trail has ended in the shopping mall. Saigon has moved
from socialism to Sony, from VC to VCR. Everything we fought
for, everything we lost 58,000 men for is being given to us
now. Perhaps we have trouble accepting that, for its one final
confirmation that the war never had to be fought at all."

The Cooke Books.

Belatedly, we mark a MediaWatch milestone reached in March:
our 100th Janet Cooke Award. It began with a June 1986 critique
of an NBC report on the Contras by NBC's Jamie Gangel and marked 100
with Time writer Elizabeth Gleick's tale of school lunch "cuts"
in March. CBS was cited the most with 32
worst-story-of-the-month award winners, followed by NBC (25),
ABC (19), PBS (9) and CNN (8). Time led the print media with
12, while Newsweek had 3. (Some months had multiple winners.)
TBS and The Washington Post won twice, and one-time winners
were The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, USA
Today, U.S. News & World Report, the Discovery Channel, and
A&E.

In the Media:
Want More on Clinton Success

Media's Liberal Take

A poll released in late May discovered that among one group
of Americans, seven times more think Whitewater has been
over-covered as under-covered; 24 times more believe Clinton's
achievements have received too little coverage as think they've garnered
too much; while over 80 percent reject the charge that the
press has been too negative in covering the new Congress. A
poll of Democratic consultants? No, a March Times Mirror Center
for the People and the Press survey of 248 national media
outlet staffers.

Princeton Survey Research interviewed the most influential
journalists: "28 were with respondents employed at the
executive level including presidents, publishers, CEOs, vice presidents,
and other high-level executives; 83 were at the executive
producer or managing editor level; and 137 were at the
correspondent or reporter level."

Two percent identified themselves as "very liberal," and
another 20 percent as "liberal." Only four percent called themselves
"conservative" and just one percent "very conservative." Overall,
64 percent answered "moderate."

The rising numbers of women and blacks may be pushing the
media left. Adding another 267 members of local media, the poll
found: "Women were twice as likely to say they were liberal than were
men (31 percent vs. 15 percent), and blacks were much more
liberal than whites (31 percent vs. 18 percent)."

Given this skew it's no surprise that just two percent
believe the press has given "too much" coverage to Clinton
Administration achievements. The rest split with 49 percent calling
coverage "about right" and 48 percent saying there's been "too
little." A post-1992 election poll of reporters by Times Mirror
found reporters thought Iran-Contra was undercovered: 71
percent called coverage fair or poor, 24 percent thought it
good. This year, while 55 percent think Whitewater's been
covered "about right," 35 percent think it's been covered "too
much" and just five percent say "too little."

Reporters think the new GOP Congress is getting it easy.
Asked if coverage has been "too cynical, too negative and has
nitpicked too much," 81 percent responded no. Just 19 percent agreed.
They were asked: "Others charge that the press has not adequately
covered the potential consequences of passage of many elements
of the Contract with America. Do you think this is a valid
criticism or not?" Half said no; 49 percent overall and 53
percent of broadcast network staffers said yes.

Media figures frequently deny their personal views have any
impact upon their reporting, but Times Mirror found about half
acknowledge the opposite. Overall, 47 percent agreed with the statement
that "the personal values of people in the news often make it
difficult for them to understand and cover such things as
religion and family values." And 53 percent agreed that "the
distinction between reporting and commentary has seriously
eroded."

Don't count on ombudsmen to help. The Boston Globe's Mark
Jurkowitz reported May 15 that a survey of the Organization of News
Ombudsmen (ONO) found that liberal bias is the most frequently
lodged complaint. But, at ONO's convention he noted, "sassy
liberal columnist Molly Ivins' Rush Limbaugh bashing remarks
were much more warmly received by ONO members than Texas
Republican Party Chairman Tom Pauken's suggestion that the
industry actively recruit more conservative journalists."

Reporters Describe GOP Plans to Increase
Spending as "Huge Cuts"

Mangling the Medicare Math

For twenty years, the Washington elites have discussed
taxing and spending through the odd prism of baseline budgeting. For
example, as Medicare grew 72 percent and Medicaid grew 132 percent
from 1989 to 1993, reporters described efforts to stem
projected increases as "cuts."

When House and Senate Republicans introduced their plans to
balance the budget by 2002, Robert Pear reported in the May 10
New York Times: "Under current law, Medicare would grow about 10 percent
a year. Under the assumptions of [Sen. Pete] Domenici's
budget, it would grow 7 percent a year, from $178 billion this
year to $283 billion in 2002.....and the growth in Medicaid
spending would be halved, to five percent a year."

But many reporters still painted a frightening picture of
"cuts." CNN reporter Bob Franken announced on May 9: "The House
Republican budget bloodletting will infuriate lots of people. Besides
the Medicare cuts, Medicaid, the government health plan for the
poor, loses $184 billion." USA Today reporter William Welch
wrote on May 10 that Domenici's budget would "Make huge cuts in
Medicare and Medicaid."

Also on May 10, ABC's John Cochran reported: "Domenici said
huge cuts in Medicaid will be offset by savings made if Washington
turns the program over to the states." Connie Chung announced on
CBS: "Senate Republicans on a key committee geared up to
approve one version of a plan to balance the budget. House
Republicans voted their version out of committee earlier today.
Both call for deep cuts in Medicare and other programs."

Newsweek's Tom Rosenstiel claimed in the May 22 issue that
Republicans "would slash funding for...medical care for the poor
and elderly." Edwin Chen and Doyle McManus of the Los Angeles Times
suggested: "Many members of Congress from both parties -- as well
as some independent analysts -- acknowledge that the deep
Medicare cuts sought by the GOP would increase costs in the
private sector while reducing insurance coverage."

On The MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour, PBS reporter Kwame Holman
claimed "In entitlement programs like Medicare, the proposed
spending cuts total $270 billion. Medicaid...would be cut by $184
billion." Elizabeth Kolbert explained the political impact in the
June 5 New York Times: an American Hospital Association poll
found two-thirds backed the GOP when pollsters talked of a
"balanced budget," but two-thirds supported Democrats when
asked about "cuts in Medicare." That might explain some
reporters' mangled mathematics.

CBS This Morning Hails Hillary

Countering Mr. Newt

Broadcasting the week of May 15-19 from David Letterman's Ed Sullivan theater, CBS This Morning gave Hillary Clinton the star treatment while repeatedly challenging House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

On Monday, Paula Zahn and Harry Smith spent an hour with
Gingrich. Zahn declared about Medicare, "your plan for a seven year
period is looking from anywhere to $250 billion to $300 billion in
cuts." Gingrich explained: "We today spend $4,700 per senior
citizen...At the end of the House Republican budget plan, we will
spend $6,300 per senior citizen."

Zahn countered with Leon Panetta's claim that many will see
their premiums rise. Later Smith added: "But your premium is
going to cost you, it's going to cost you more money." Gingrich
disagreed with Panetta's math, prompting Zahn to note that the AARP
"says you're moving too fast, that this plan doesn't make sense."
When Gingrich asserted the GOP has long been interested in
health care, Smith shot back: "There were plenty of Republicans
marching around a year or so ago saying there was no health
care crisis."

During her hour on Friday, Hillary Clinton found more
supportive hosts. Zahn and Smith granted plenty of time to talk about
breast cancer research and the challenges of being a working
parent. After Mrs. Clinton declared when Republicans want "to
cut education to give the richest people in America a tax cut,
we have our values upside down and backwards," the hosts failed
to challenge her partisan charge.

Zahn seemed disappointed by Mrs. Clinton's post-health plan
retrenchment, observing: "You've been touching on health issues,
family issues, women's issues, and as you know, because you read
newspapers, there are some Americans who are wondering where the
`Lawyer Clinton' is, where the `Legislating Hillary' is?"

Giving her a chance to return to her favorite topic, Zahn
set her up nicely: "Are you in favor of overhauling Medicare
without doing it within a huge, huge, large framework?" Unlike with
Gingrich, after Mrs. Clinton recited her liberal litany of how
she's "very scared about overhauling Medicare without health
care reform," neither host followed up on her lengthy answer.

Truth About
Consequences

NBC Nightly News ran a series in the last week of May, "Red
Tape," linking government rules and regulations with their
real-life effects, demonstrating the unintended problems government
intrusion causes.

On May 30, Roger O'Neil profiled a century-old family
logging company with 200 workers that went out of business. Why? "Timber
sales slowed down as regulatory red tape from the Forest
Service increased. Studies for clean air, clean water,
recreation, wildlife. Study this, study that. Twenty-four
studies in all cut the log supply in half. Then in 1993 it was
cut in half again. The Mexican spotted owl -- never seen in the
Kaibab Forest but photographed 200 miles away...was put on the
endangered species list. That forced four more studies." The
next night, Robert Hager examined the Depression-era Davis-Bacon Act,
which mandates that federal building contractors pay local union
wages. Hager pointed out that "Davis-Bacon is blamed for a
staggering $2 billion a year in extra construction costs. Of
that, $100 million is spent just on extra paperwork."

Mike Jensen tackled the capricious rulings the IRS has made
on independent contractors on June 1. The segment introduced
viewers to the fight over who pays a free-lancer's taxes: business
owners or the free-lancers themselves. Often the IRS engages in its
own form of double-dipping. Jensen related how "the IRS has
collected more than $750 million from company owners in the
last seven years, even though many of the freelancers had paid
their own taxes." A computer consultant linked it to real-life
effects: "If you're thinking about expanding your business and
getting people to work for you, you're scared away."

Educrats Exposed

Diane Sawyer began ABC's May 3 PrimeTime Live wondering
about education being underfunded: "Is that really the
problem?...Americans are now paying more than four times what we paid in
the 1950s for education...On average, we pay as much per
student per year in a public school as some private schools
charge." Sawyer also noted the root problem: "Back in 1950,
two-thirds of all the money budgeted for education was actually
spent in the classroom, on instruction. But by 1992, less than
one-half made it there, in part because the percentage of the
budget for administration doubled."

ABC visited schools where bureaucracy reigned. In Los
Angeles, Sawyer found principal Yvonne Chan, who ordered computers three
years ago. "Chan told us that if she had gone to an outside
company, she could have got a comparable system cheaper, and in
only three months." Sawyer cited Texas Controller John Sharp,
who found a district where administrators "cut out all the
Saturday tutorials and cut the budgets of all the schools," but
"had seven public relations officials on the payroll to take
care of the district image." Rather than spend more,"Sharp
found he could save over $100 million without touching the
classroom...in just 17 districts out of more than 1,000 in Texas."

Still Missing "Hate Radio" on the Left

The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour invited six talk show hosts to
discuss the Oklahoma City bombing on April 25, including Larry
Bensky of Pacifica, the far-left network of five FM stations that
receives around $1 million a year from the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting. Bensky explained: "Talk radio is an entertainment
medium. It is set up to be commercially successful on AM radio
by getting the maximum number of listeners. It plays to the
lowest common denominators, in many cases, of fear, of anxiety
and anger. It doesn't spread information. It spreads paranoia."

Bensky was not asked to defend Los Angeles station KPFK's
"Afrikan Mental Liberation Weekend" of 1993, when Elijah Muhammed
declared: "I would not say that the white man is a descendent of
Satan, because that would be wrong. We didn't have a Satan
before the white man. So the white man is Satan himself."

During Operation Desert Shield in 1990, Berkeley station
KPFA invited on Craig Hulet, who explained: "George Bush is a
threat...[He] has perpetrated the most heinous race war against [the]
black [and] Hispanic community...since slavery...That's who's
going to the prison camps...We've got a man in the White House
that is more fascist, more racist, more dangerous than any man
on the planet." KPFA then offered Hulet's tapes as a premium
for donating to the station. But the media that harped on
Limbaugh and Liddy have failed to notice.

Janet Cooke Award: All Things Ill-Considered

National journalists are rarely more fawning than when
profiling other national journalists. Despite its reputation as the
avenger of corruption, even 60 Minutes can go soft. For airing a
one-sided tribute to and defense of National Public Radio, 60
Minutes earned the Janet Cooke Award.

Morley Safer's June 4 profile began: "There's a lot of talk
about radio these days, not all of it about the haters and the
screamers. Some of it is about that other radio, public radio, and
despite its restraint, there are those that want to switch it off."
Safer added: "In the brash and abusive world of contemporary
radio, shock jocks, and hate merchants, NPR prides itself on
its calm and reasoned voice."

Safer had already committed two mistakes: he made no
distinction between privatizing public broadcasting and "switching off"
the entire system; and he ignored those public radio programs
which are not "calm and reasoned." Federally-funded Pacifica
radio has aired two "Afrikan Mental Liberation Weekends," which
devoted hours to racist and anti-Semitic propaganda by
speakers like Louis Farrakhan, Leonard Jeffries, and Steve
Cokely, who insists that Jews spread AIDS in the inner city.

Safer also didn't consider NPR commentators like Bebe
Moore-Campbell, who called the NRA "the Negro Removal Association,"or
Philip Martin, who proclaimed: "In the 1930s, Father Coughlin's
anti-Semitism enjoyed enormous popularity because a vocal
minority of people shared his views. The same is true today for
devoted listeners of Rush Limbaugh and company."

CBS did allow a CNBC snippet from Newt Gingrich and four
soundbites from Rep. Jay Dickey (R-Ark.), who argued NPR was
elitist and liberal. Safer described Dickey's viewpoint as insisting
that NPR is "not for real Americans." Safer then worked to
disprove him, interviewing NPR's Scott Simon, Susan Stamberg,
John Burnett, and NPR President Delano Lewis, who called
conservative criticism "a direct attack on America's right to
know."

Safer suggested: "NPR claims it's as wholesome and rural as
Charlie Kuralt, that their 7 million listeners are not all
politically correct left-leaning bean sprouts." CBS ignored a 1989
Gallup survey done for NPR that showed that Morning Edition
listeners were "significantly more likely to describe
themselves as liberal" than the average American or the average
college-educated non-NPR listener. Thirty percent believed
Morning Edition had a liberal slant, while only three percent
thought it was conservative. "About equal percents of both
self-reported liberals and conservatives think the program is liberal in
nature," Gallup concluded.

As for "left-leaning," Charles Kuralt proclaimed in a
special honoring his retirement: "It is liberalism, whether people like
it or not, which has animated all the years of my life. What on
Earth did conservatism ever accomplish for our country?"

"Wholesome" may not describe an All Things Considered report
three days before the 60 Minutes story. NPR's Joe Neel addressed
the increased risk of AIDS transmission at new gay sex clubs. Neel
quoted historian Allen Baraby, who frequents the clubs: "It's the
adventure of meeting someone that you don't know and feeling
this erotic charge and you know, exploring them and their
bodies and having conversations, and having this kind of bond
with someone that you never met before and never may meet
again. There's this specialness about that kind of intimacy
with a stranger." Two days after the CBS story, reporter Martha
Guiled explored Kaiser Permanente's new classes for lesbian
parents.

Safer continued his critique of conservative arguments:
"When All Things Considered broadcast from Nashville a few
weeks ago, it covered barbecue, country music, Bible publishing, and
regional economics. It was classic public radio cuisine."

But when anchor Linda Wertheimer reported from Nashville
March 10, she profiled TennCare, a state-enforced managed care
system, noting the Democrats "saw to it that opponents would have no
time to raise objections. Before the lobbyists could get their act
together, TennCare was implemented in six weeks." NPR aired
four soundbites of TennCare planners, two of a Blue Cross
official, two uninsured people, and four doctors, one of whom
thought TennCare did too little for the poor -- and no
conservatives. Wertheimer ended: "If there are lessons to be
learned about federal health care reform, the moral of TennCare
might be, reform can be accomplished and it can cut costs. But
if everyone has to feel good about reform, it can't happen."

CBS tried to disprove liberal elitism at NPR by showing
non-political programs. Safer proclaimed: "This side of NPR is
not exactly a Republican Congressman's idea of effete liberalism at
work. Meet Alice McChesney, star of KCAW, Sitka, Alaska."
Displaying an accordion-playing grandmother does not answer the
argument that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting could
make massive cuts and still fund rural stations.

Safer asked Susan Stamberg about their critics' motives:
"The cuts are being made in the name of genuine economy, that
everybody's got to cut. But is there really another agenda at work
here....by those people who think that you do represent a monotone
voice from the left, to kind of cut you down to size?" Stamberg
typified liberal elitism: "Those people really need to have
their hearing repaired and if they are happy listening to Rush
Limbaugh all the time, well, that's too bad."

Safer stressed:"Over the years, NPR has grown into a major
force in American journalism." The story finished with Scott
Simon's declaration: "What makes us distinctive is reporting. We get out
there, we see stories, we look them in the face. Now
journalism as opposed to opinion-mongering is expensive, it's
compromising, it can get you into trouble. But on the other
hand, that's the great gift that we give the American listening
public." CBS never mentioned reporting like Nina Totenberg's
spreading of unproven charges of sexual harassment against
Clarence Thomas. Safer didn't ask: if NPR is so great, why can't
it make it on its own, without federal funding?

Laurence Jarvik, Washington Director of the Center for the
Study of Popular Culture, sent many of the Center's NPR critiques to
CBS producer Elizabeth Pearson, as did MediaWatch. When asked why
they failed to explore all this evidence, Pearson said "I don't
feel comfortable commenting on this," and suggested producer
Steven Reiner, who did not return calls.

Jarvik told MediaWatch: "It was clear they wanted to make
NPR look good. They didn't want to report on the sex discrimination
suits against NPR, the complaints of reporter Phyllis Crockett
about racism. And NPR is violating a law that requires them to
be objective. Why did 60 Minutes throw that fight?"

Federal employees and military personnel can donate to the Media Research Center through the Combined Federal Campaign or CFC. To donate to the MRC, use CFC #12489. Visit the CFC website for more information about giving opportunities in your workplace.